HATTIESBURG — Ballot counting will stretch into a third day for Hattiesburg’s second mayoral election this year. The special election was Tuesday, and officials spent hours yesterday counting and examining absentee ballots. They stopped just before 5 p.m. yesterday and are scheduled to start again about 9 a.m. today. Independent Dave Ware had a 32-vote […] [...]

UNION COUNTY — State Auditor Stacey Pickering says special agents have served a demand to former Union County coroner Mark Golding in the amount of $398,418.83. The Auditor’s Office began an investigation on Golding May 28 and determined that Golding submitted false claims, totaling $276,591.56, to the Union County Board of Supervisors requesting fees for […] [...]

JACKSON — Former state Sen. Billy Thames died yesterday of complications from surgery for colon cancer. He was 69. Thames’ wife, Ann, said he died at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Funeral arrangements were incomplete. Thames was a Democrat from Mize who served in the Senate from January 1980 until January 2008. He was […] [...]

JACKSON — John Hampton Stennis, a lawyer and former state legislator who was the only son of the late U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis, died yesterday. He was 78. Kim Perrett, a spokeswoman for the Jones Walker law firm, confirmed Stennis died Thursday morning. Stennis was a partner in a law firm — Watkins Ludlam […] [...]

HATTIESBURG — The Mississippi Democratic Party and the Hattiesburg City Council have asked the Justice Department to send observers to the city for the Sept. 24 mayoral election. The Democratic Party sent a request to the Justice Department last month. The Hattiesburg City Council last month adopted a resolution also asking for poll watchers. Hattiesburg […] [...]

WALTHALL COUNTY — This South Mississippi county has agreed to purge the names of ineligible voters from its voter registration roll, including those of any dead people and disenfranchised felons whose names appear. The agreement was filed yesterday in a consent order in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg. A Virginia-based conservative group, the American Civil […] [...]

GULFPORT — Calling pending flood insurance increases “drastic and draconian,” U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Gulfport met today with state and local leaders to discuss ways to stem the tide of rising insurance rates that are due to kick in as early as October. Palazzo, Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney and David Miller, associate administrator […] [...]

VICKSBURG — An attorney has asked federal judge to reschedule the bribery trial of former Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield. The trial had been scheduled for Sept. 30, but was recently changed to Sept. 23. Winfield’s lawyer, Dennis Sweet, said in a court filing Monday that he has another engagement and wants the trial moved back […] [...]

OLIVE BRANCH — Olive Branch’s mayor is proposing 3 percent average pay raises for city employees and a half-million dollars set aside to pave roads. The Commercial Appeal reports the Board of Aldermen will hold a public hearing tonight on the budget proposed by Mayor Scott Phillips for the 2013-14 fiscal year that starts Oct. […] [...]

HATTIESBURG — Gov. Phil Bryant has set a Sept. 24 special election for a do-over in the Hattiesburg mayoral race. Bryant’s order today came days after Judge William Coleman ordered a new election because of questions about the way the June 4 election was conducted. Former city council member Dave Ware, who ran for mayor […] [...]